


Requiem

by Galaxy_Cerebri



Series: Aria [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Anxiety, BROT3, Demons, Depression, Existentialism, Gen, Hunters, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo 2019, Spectres, Spirits, Supernatural - Freeform, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-20 17:03:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21285143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaxy_Cerebri/pseuds/Galaxy_Cerebri
Summary: In a world where your teddy bear could be possessed by a Joy Spirit, or that creepy little kid could be a Fear Demon in disguise, Xiaojun Ren was all but gifted to the Spectre Academy by her parents. All in the hopes that she would join the illustrious Spectres and help keep the peace by policing Spiritual matters and hunting down corrupt spirits (demons). That is... if her spirit doesn't kill her first.She'd really like a nap right about now.
Relationships: Karina Zan & Taesoo Kwon, Maria Acosta & Calypso Andino, Xiaojun Ren & Amelie DuBois & Maria Acosta
Series: Aria [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534400
Kudos: 5





	Requiem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [truncatedGrip](https://archiveofourown.org/users/truncatedGrip/gifts).

> So uhhh this is my comic Requiem in a novel form, cus I've lost a lot of my energy to art/comic? But I still love Requiem and the characters, and it was the most planned thing I have?? So I figured I would do it for Nano. Many thanks to my beta again for putting up with my speed type and never look back method of writing, I couldn't do this without you. Literally, I run just about everything over them. They are my external common sense, so who else would I gift the story too.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xiaojun Ren doesn't want to be a Spectre, but the world takes from her anyway.

Fact of reality: everything comes with a cost. 

Everything works with a system of give and take; to get something, you must give in turn. The worst situation is when you had to give for something you don’t want.

Xiaojun Ren was tired. She’d been tired for a long time.

Her fingers tapped against the wooden table of the lecture hall. Apparently, her cohort was large for sixty people all things considering. She likely wouldn’t see half of them again, just faces under masks after they’d been tricked into selling their souls. She couldn’t judge them for that though, she had done the same.

The clock continued to tick, the sound of Doctor O'Connell’s Scottish accent drowning in and out of her focus. It was the usual lecture, she kind of assumed it was tradition at this point. To remind them of their duty, to maintain the delicate balance that their fucked-up world had become and needed to survive.

For eons, Homo Sapiens had asked if they were alone. It was a naturally social species, after all, so the thought of being such – undeniably and irrevocably _ alone _ – it terrified them. But on the turn of the century, they got an answer.

And it was no.

On the 2nd of August, Sir Alexander Vasilita received some form of SOS from the spirit realm when trying to map out some obscure scientific concept that Jun never bothered to learn. Nor cared enough to. Their desolate reality was crumbling, and we could help them.

They thrived on spiritual energy, the building blocks of reality. _ We _, however, thrived on Life Energy which could be broken down and refined to make Spiritual Energy. It was an easy fix, and after four years of debate between the United World Council and the Spirit Realm’s Seven Warlords, a deal was struck. One that no one could predict the consequences of.

Spirits weren’t allowed to enter our world en masse; it would unbalance the status quo. However, they were comprised solely of spirit energy arranged in specific ways. Like how the alignment of Protons, electrons and neutrons in an atom could fundamentally change the intrinsic identity and characteristics of an element. This allowed them to restructure themselves into the essence of items and control them, using mirrors in our world as gateways.

The deal brokered allowed them to do this using random items, so long as they did not harm the structure of the world or it’s people. As well as a load of other bullshit laws, but that was the main one anyone cared enough to think about.

To police the spirits, things had to be made fair, however. They lived on an entirely different wavelength of thought and ideals and their purpose defined their nature. To deny it meant becoming their worst nightmare; to the point where death would be the sweeter option.

That was where the Spectre Program came in. For every human, a spirit. Their souls bound together for eternity, working as a single unit. With spirits being solely made of spirit energy, nothing but their own make could destroy them. The only requirement? They had to have perfectly complementary souls. So-called Reflectives.

“Hopefully, you will be part of this elite group of bonded, shortly,” The Doctor said kindly, “Now that is out of the way, allow me to be the first to congratulate you for passing through first year basic training. On behalf of your teacher and the staff, we are very proud of you. Despite its name, there is nothing _ basic _ about it, especially since most of you are coming from non-combat backgrounds.”

Jun sighed, recalling how the third-year trainees had whispered about this ceremony. It was less a welcome and more a parade march to their doom. The Doctor’s words were a requiem of what was to come. The least the staff could do was make it a little faster.

“Last year you all signed a contract stating that, upon completing your training, you would work in some capacity or other in the program. Those of you in this room, specifically, have agreed to bond to a spirit and continue your studies as Spectres in Training. Upon a successful bonding, you will fight harder, better and faster. You will have to redefine your limits.” Doctor O’Connell continued, her back straight and chin up with pride.

Everyone knew Doctor Elena O'Connell. Either because of the rumours surrounding her or because they were her patient. She was an ex-Spectre, one of the few to get out of the field. If they could, the Directors would work spectres like dogs until they died. Having lost her arm, she had been relocated to the Training Academy in the middle of nowhere. She was to spend the rest of her days as the school psychiatrist and a guide for students that couldn’t control their new powers. But everyone knew that she could still fight, it’s just no one knew how. Her words could even influence the Board of Director.

No one knew her age, the name of her spirit, the skill that got her into training in the first place. She was one of the first Spectres, so she was either military or one of the poor souls that got drafted, like everyone all the trainees in the room, because she was dangerously good at something. If it was the latter, that left the question of what that skill was.

“Please remember though,” O’Connell stated, “As prodigies, your chances of being a reflective soul increases because you have spent years dedicating yourself to something like spirits do to their purpose. An inherent trait of being a Reflective, if you will. But this doesn’t mean that all of you will bond today. The brutal likelihood is that only a quarter of you will go onto further Spectre training. Whether because you don’t have a Spirit, or because it rejected you.”

“In either case, the staff and I will support you as you transition into the Spectre Program Sub-Division of your choice. Whether that’s in Admin, the brains of the program, or the Hunters, who assist Spectres in the field,” She said, sounding a little tired herself. As if she had gotten sick of giving this same speech to young hopefuls thinking they were at the top of the world, as she waited patiently for it to knock them down.

A tap to Jun’s shoulder dragged her from her bitter musings. Looking to the side, she gave a wry smile. “Are you ok?” Amelie asked softly, her dorm mate worrying as ever. She was kindness in a nutshell. Her white hair fell in waves as her large blue eyes looked smaller with the furrow of her brow.

“I’m fine,” Xiaojun waved off, “Just… waiting, y’know? I kind of wish I could fall asleep like Maria…”

The pair looked to Jun’s other side, where their Brazilian friend had her head rested atop her folded arms. She’d fallen asleep the second they arrived, her brown hair sticking out at ends from her perpetual bed head as she rolled her head in sleep to get comfortable.

“I don’t,” Amelie countered with a smile of her own, “Remember how many detentions she got last year for sleeping in class?”

“Fair enough,” Jun snorted.

“So, what kind of spirit do you think you’ll get?” Amelie asked wistfully. Jun wished for her naivety. But France never did have the same number of spirits as China. The packed together skyscrapers and little hole in the wall streets, it was easy to get lost and eaten by a monster lurking in the dark.

“I don’t know, there are too many different ones,” she replied with a textbook response, “But if I can get a Beta Class, I’ll be happy.”

“Same here, I just really want one I can use my gymnastics at,” Amelie nodded, before adding aside, “Especially since it’s all I’m good at.”

Jun scoffed. Amelie was small, even compared to Jun who got away with her decent height of five foot two, but she was fast and flexible. It had served her well in close hand to hand combat when they were training together in first year. She’d seen from the crowd, how Amelie had danced around blows from her opponent. She’d lost concentration of course, when she realised from the corner of her eye just how many people were watching her. Her stepping fumbled and her opponent had taken advantage. She’d lost the fight and knowing Amelie, the loss likely haunted her. Rather, the failure in front of so many people haunted her.

“It is _ not _,” Jun corrected, “I doubt anyone else in the class could get Maria to get out of bed.”

Amelie giggled at the joke, the pair of them nudging Maria to get her up. Maria Acosta, her name was the first to be called to much grumbling on her part. She was the best fighter in their cohort, not military but that was their loss. Maria was an MMA fighter who had learnt from the people around her. Taking in actions and making them her own exceptionally quick. Her body was just able to gain muscle memory far easier than anyone else. A luck of the genetic draw, some would say. Jun believed it more than likely had to do with the influence of a spirit in her family history. While movement of spirits was sanctioned with the Vasilita Treaty, that didn’t mean it didn’t happen beforehand.

She left with Doctor O’Connell, off into the abyss to find her personal monster. The second the door closed behind them; the cohort burst into chatter. Everyone wondered what they would get, would they get lucky and get a God Spirit, or would they be the weak link with an embodiment. Thoughts and possibilities tugged at them all like a domino. One idea leading to the next until they were swirling into what kind of spirits were out there.

No one knew of course, the Spirit Realm was closely adjacent to their own world. It was a realm of thought and belief, and if you thought and believed hard enough – as cheesy as it sounded – it would exist. Just about anything was possible, the only limit was imagination. This however had the downside of their Purpose being their existence. To go against this purpose was to break themselves, morphing them into Demons. Mindless creatures that tried desperately to return to what they were, destroying everything in their path.

Jun didn’t initially realise when she was being called. Not until Amelie tapped her again and nodded in the Good Doctor’s direction. Annoyance and suppressed anger dogged her steps as she made her way across their row and down the steps to the door.

“Are you ready?” Elena asked kindly, she had likely been chosen to do this because of her calming nature. A soothing balm to every terrified, nervous, anxious, and impatient student that made their way to the summoning hall.

It was the giant building in the back of the Academy, quite near the lecture hall that they had been shoved in. It stood as a pillar to the heavens, no student was allowed entry without a staff member, reasonable since within held the power to open the floodgates between worlds. Within, held the power to destroy reality. Within held the rest of her broken future and a reminder of her broken past.

The thing about Xiaojun Ren was that she didn’t know who that was. Her parents had wanted a prodigy, so they made her one. She didn’t much like fencing, she didn’t like the rough calluses it gave her, the burn in her muscles as she tried to perfect a type of parry. At best, she was indifferent to the sport. They made her work hours, days, weeks, years for _ their _ dream of a perfect child.

Having a UWC rep come to their home, tell them she could be a spectre and change the world? Added side bonus.

Thus, she was going to end up spending the rest of her life in service to a paramilitary group without any say in the matter herself. She was paying the toll for a road she didn’t want to be on. Hooray. So… Jun was tired. She wanted to take a nap and never wake up to the living nightmare her life had become. The lack of agency she had in day to day situations.

Her feet came to a halt before the doors to the summoning hall. It was a large black oak with gold, circular handles, imposing in its size and weight. To venture forward was to never go back. Abandon all hope ye who enter here and all that.

“Behind this door, you will contract your spirit. Just go up to the mirror and hold up your hand,” Elena said gently, her voice so quiet that it barely carried in the impressively long corridor.

The dirt path of the hall crunched under her oxfords as she walked closer. Her white blazer ill-fitted, the black dress shirt stifling and tight, immaculately tucked into her skirt. The room was a biting cold as she resisted the urge to shiver and rub her arms. No weaknesses or they’d crush you for it.

Her fingers brushed against the massive stone pillars bracketing the path she was on, fencing her in with large plots of flowers and grass. The only source of light came from above, the open sky gleaming through the stained-glass mural of the Six Warlords’ emblem of a leaved ivy vine. Each leaf a Warlord, each a different colour, branching from a single whole to keep it strong.

“_ Come closer dear, _” A voice whispered, carried on the wind.

Purple glowing butterflies flickered in and out of her sight before a storm of them came forth from behind her. Her long hair danced as the soft breeze turned into a gale, when it suddenly ceased. There at the end of the path was a massive spirit.

An iridescent purple in the light, the top half was a beautiful woman. Her hair covered her face and eyes, but she still seemed to investigate Jun’s soul like someone looking through a window. Her lower half was replaced with the body of a snake, wrapped around the entire hall like an unending cage. It slipped and wrapped around pillars like a snake would vines.

But the most mind-numbing thing, was the massive mirror in her hands. It towered over Jun, nearly matching the spirit in size. Chains kept it held in her grip as she tilted it closer until it was within reaching distance.

‘Just reach out’ Elena’s voice echoed in Jun’s mind.

The thing about spirits and demons was that, like people, they came in different shapes, sizes and types. To interact with the world, they possessed objects and casted a physical glamour, to witness it however, they merely possess energy to form Reflections in the world.

Embodiments were the weakest, the incarnation of emotions like joy and wrath. Then concepts, incarnation of actions like selflessness and compassion. Third was Folk spirits: Self-explanatory, they were born from stories, ever shifting as their stories changed with time. Fourth, Legendaries: Spirits so powerful they take the form of heroes and mighty weapons from stories and history.

Next was Gods. Spirits and Demons forged by absorbing weaker ones, so abstract in their fundamentality that they took the form of vaguely appropriate Gods from ancient pantheons.

The strongest spirits didn’t fit into any of these categories. No one was sure of what to make of them. Their most indicative feature was their size and the weight of the world on their backs.

Nagas, or more colloquially, the Mirror Spirits. The gatekeepers of realms, the holders of the veil between the world and the Spirit Realm.

So, imagine Jun’s surprise when she saw one waiting for her. Even as a Reflection, it was awe inspiring. Her breath caught in her throat, her muscles tensed, like a deer in headlights she just froze in place.

“_ This is your new dawn _ ,” the Mirror Spirit whispered, the sound was compelling and soft. Like a security blanket gently wrapping around her. For something so large, it spoke so carefully. “ _ Let us awaken the fire in your heart, child. We shall see if you flicker like a candle or burn like the sun. _”

Jun’s hand twitched at the challenge. She sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted again. Forcing a smirk onto her face, she raised her hand. Her fingers gingerly kissed the mirror’s surface as she replied, “Forget a sun, I’ll light up an entire galaxy.”

“_ Oh? _ ” a grating voice rasped. Like fingers on a chalkboard, it made her shudder. An instinctive thing clicked into place and Jun took a step back. Her fingers left the mirror as the image of herself shuddered and that of a man, red skin with long bangs and a cloak covering his eyes, came into view. Armoured like a roman soldier, he had a sickening grin as he said, “ _ I can’t wait to see it, let the fun begin, hm? _”

Her eyes widened as the mirror burst. A giant claw reaching out to grab at her retreating arm. Her body burned as it gripped onto her, something inside her cracked and she let out a blood curdling scream of pain. In the periphery, she registered alarms ringing while she fell to the ground.

She couldn’t even die by her own terms, could she?

  



End file.
